Technology

'ZooPAL - A Gift' is an algorithmically driven program that can take more than a thousand paths depending on how each child responds at different turns of the tale. (Clem Murray/Philadelphia Inquirer/MCT)

Kartik Hosanagar and Prasanna Krishnan have the earmarks of a power couple.

At 36, Hosanagar is a professor at University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, co-founder of Yodle Inc., the online marketer, and is an angel investor in a dozen other startups. Krishnan, 34, has done stints in tech development at Comcast, venture investing in Silicon Valley and management at Jetsetter, the travel website.

But you might say that a third family member - their 2 1/2-year-old son, Aarav - is at least as important to Mom and Dad's latest venture: SmartyPAL, envisioned as a series of interactive children's books designed for the iPad generation.

A summer outage affecting Apple developers delayed the launch of the first of their book-game hybrids. But it didn't slow their plans, Hosanagar and Krishnan told me recently. The first title, "ZooPAL - A Gift," went live Aug. 5, to be followed in the fall by "ZooPAL - A New Zoo." PAL stands for "play, apply and learn," themes for the series.

"ZooPAL - A Gift" is a simple story, centering on a mystery package that shows up one day at the zoo. What makes it more engaging is that it's actually not a single story, but an algorithmically driven program that can take more than a thousand different paths depending on how the child responds at each turn of the tale.

Use the ladder or the trampoline to reach into the tree? The boat or the bridge to reach the package floating in a pond?

Eventually, the books will be personalizable by loading a child's face onto a character's, as Aarav's is in the sample. That's fitting, since Aarav also stars in the story behind SmartyPAL, which began on a flight to India.

Aarav was only a year old when he took his first trip to his parents' birthplace, but he'd already been drawn to the couple's iPads - so engaged that they decided to buy him his own tablet for the long journey. He especially liked storybook apps - no surprise, since reading with his parents is a favorite activity.

But as Aarav played, his parents became increasingly critical of what the App Store had for children. And that triggered one of their own favorite activities: thinking about how they could do better.

I should note right here that Krishnan and Hosanagar recognize the importance of limiting "screen time," today's catch-all for time in front of a television, computer or mobile device.

They share the nuanced view of Temple University developmental psychologist Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, one of two academics who helped in SmartyPAL's own developmental phase.

"It's a funny balance that we all need to worry about," said Hirsh-Pasek, who said studies show children 8 years and over average an astounding eight hours a day staring at a screen, and younger children about half of that.

Hirsh-Pasek said evidence is clear that young children learn "virtually nothing" from passive screen time, and learn best when they interact with people.

"We learn in the social soup — that's what we are," she said.

But what about human-machine interaction? That's the multibillion-dollar question underlying SmartyPAL and a huge and growing segment of the app market. One measure: Hosanagar said parents with tablets download an average of 27 apps per year for their children.

Hirsh-Pasek said early evidence, including studies of how children react to teaching via Skype, is intriguing.

"We're just starting to learn about robot teachers, and they're actually sort of effective," she said. "The interaction, that dance between parent and child and teacher and child, is critically important."

With SmartyPAL's interactive books, the permutations are dynamic and adjust to a child's starting level and progress.

"The whole idea that there's no one answer to a problem," said Hosanagar.

There's no single answer either on how to maximize technology's value for a child's development and education. But with Aarav's help, SmartyPAL may be on the right path.

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